Yami Shibai Episode 1 Anime Review

Let’s rip off the talisman on my ceiling and ignore the creepy lady across the street. Woohoo!

Did Christmas come early this season? Holy shit yes. Yami Shibai is a full-fledged horror anime using Kamishibai to tell the stories. It’s basically something like paper puppets, which is reflected in the stiff anime style. This type of story-telling enhances the horror element since it’s a throwback to traditional days with all the old lore that comes with it.

Some of you might have watched enough anime to realise this – ripping off talismen willy-nilly is never a fucking good idea. It is a cultural “tradition” in a sense, passed down mostly orally. Don’t toy with incense or statues of deities. Don’t stick your chopsticks into your bowl off rice since they resemble joss-sticks burnt to the dead. Never step on burnt offerings, even the ash. Talismen have to be burnt in a temple’s fire to be destroyed, not ripped or whatever else. And don’t fucking rip off talismen that are stuck on things. Just no. So, as our protagonist peeled off the talisman on his ceiling, my eyes widened and such dread just filled me. You might or might not have felt this given the culture you grew up in.

Now, I’m a rational person. I love science and science fiction. But if one day you came up to me and offered me a million dollars to pull a talisman off a box, I’ll just say fuck you and walk away. You might or might not believe that the words themselves have “magic”. But it’s clear that talismen are warning signs, just like how we have a big STOP sign at an intersection. There could be a black widow spider in the box for all I know and some old man stuck it on.

Spoiler. So yes, I just about had an aneurysm when the guy went wild ripping off the talismen underneath his table.

My only regret is that the anime was so short. Barely five minutes and yet I got such a scare.